On our way to see my family we made a stop at Bully Hill in the finger lakes to pick up sown wine for ourselves and our parents – due to Ohio laws we can’t get this wine at home unless a distributor carries it. So funny story due to the natural dyes in the yarn it would turn my hands purple whenever I knit with it. When we went in to do the wine tasting the guy asked me of I had been playing in the grapes already that morning.

One of the great fortunes of having wonderful family in western Massachusetts is that they live about 15 minutes from Webs. My Aunt Millie always assumes that will be one of the stops during my visits and this trip.was no different. When I was a little stuck on the length for my sweater we went to Webs and Erin ever so kindly helped me decide how much longer to make it.

I knit on it for the majority of our travel time and while watching the Royal Wedding. When we got back my work travel began ramping up for a summer of travel.  (Little did I know my fall would be even busier!) I knit the sleeves, attached them and took a great deal of time to knit the yoke. The yoke has a lot of stitches per row AND has extra fabric since the neck is pleated. I also would only knit on it when it wasn’t weird for my hands to be purple. Then came the fun of doing the pleats. I really like how the pleats turned out and I copied a few people on Ravelry to make my pleats facing in the back.

There was a bit of a lag on production while I waited for some great buttons to arrive from Orit in Israel.

Manu bound off

The last piece was an i-cord bind off which I sadly finished at the boy’s great aunt’s funeral. Well the family gathering afterward not the service. This sweater will be special up me since I also knit on it while we were attending his grandmother’s funeral in May. Both ladies were very special to the boy and to me and both were Knitters.

I am really pleased with how this sweater turned out. I elected to not knit pockets since I was almost out of yarn! :-O

It’s taken awhile to get FO shots but we finally got them done.

Ferns and Foliage – possibly for the yard?

These would definitely add color and texture to our yard. I am hopeful some of these species may be friendly to shade? Since our yard is pretty high on shade and low on sun.

These three seem to be three varieties of the same plant. A plant which I think I used to have but may have finally killed after three years. I have faith that if I had this plant again I could help it survive.

Flowers – inside or outside? Sun or Shade?

Everyone is aware of how much I love this shade of orange, right?

I kind of love everything about this flower. The round petals and the color.

A sweet looking flower that may choose to grow wild in my yard?

I love how this guy looks like he could be right out of a Dr Seuss book!

For the unidentified flowers and ferns (which is basically all of these) does anyone know the variety?

We had a great time hanging out at the winery in the village after touring the house. We toured the production area which was very interesting. Then we headed over to talk to the Smithy. On the way we may have taken a short detour to check out some of the mohair fleece they have for processing demonstrations. We spent a good while talking to the apprentice blacksmith who actually happened to be from Ohio. So many cool tools to check out that have barely changed since they were invented. You know what they say, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

The next morning there was a break in the weather so we headed back to the Biltmore to get some pictures outside of the house and a few more in the gardens in the daylight.

I found several flowers that I would love to see if I can grow somewhere in my house or yard. I do however need to get some better gardening skills before I can invest in a ton of flowers. Heh.

After we left the Biltmore we drove over to Tennessee to take a drive on the infamous Tail of the Dragon. It’s an 11-mile stretch of highway with 318 curves in the road. It’s quite popular with the motorcycle crowd and the touring crowd. The locals aren’t always too thrilled to have to drive up and down the road though when they’re in a hurry.

We had a good time and did three passes before heading up to Maryville, where we stayed on a mountaintop. Driving up and down the mountain was an adventure in itself and the boy definitely got his fill of driving super windy roads. It was a bit nice to finally get onto straight roads when we drove back to Ohio the next day. This place is a new bed & breakfast and the owners are wonderful hosts. We had a great time relaxing up there and are hoping to get back again some time.

One of the best parts about finally getting home after a long and very rainy drive was a phone call telling us to go out and get the big stick off our shed. After some prompting the boy went to check it out and we found that his parents had left us a super comfortable swing for our lanai. (I had to wait until the next day to get pictures.)

All in all it was a great anniversary trip. I think we’ll try to do something each year for our anniversary from here on out.

After work I put the finishing touches on it and found a ribbon to use in place of the ones I’d made that morning. I couldn’t quite figure out how to turn them right side out and didn’t have time to have anyone show me how to do it before I left. I ended up using some leftover ribbon from my wedding dress which worked out really well!

I basically cobbled together these two patterns: Easy Drawstring Bag and Lined Drawstring Bag making them the size I wanted. Then I decided to add coordinating pockets on the insides. I really, really like how the seams look from the lined tutorial, it also made it a lot easier for me to add in the pockets.

Once I got home and went to knit night they showed me how to turn the ribbons right side out and I was able to take FO shots. I am still toying with whether or not I want to square off the bottom like she does in the Purl Bee tutorial. Maybe on the next one.

I made the ballet neck dress pattern from one yard wonders. The pattern uses an entire yard of fabric to start with and then utilizes elastic to gather the fabric to give it shape. While cutting it I sometimes wondered if I would just be making a tunic for myself. Since it seemed so large and because I wasn’t sure at what length to hem it I had my sister bring my niece over for a little try-on. Once we got over her confusion of thinking it was a nightgown and that she had to go to bed; she decided she wanted to help me pin the dress with the “sharps”.

Helping me pin her dress

Since that wasn’t overly helpful I took a measurement and hemmed up the fabric later. I hemmed it without cutting the length off so the dress can be let out in the future. I also sewed the waist band a little lower so it would be more of a drop waist for now (can you even really have a drop waist on a toddler?) and then will be in a better spot for her next summer and the following. I also used the bias tape I made for the waist and put it on the sleeve caps to clean up my poor hand sewing. Shhh!

Modeling her new dress

At the party she tried the dress on for me and I think it turned out pretty cute. I also think it will fit much better next summer, but that’s ok, this summer – I am sad to say – is almost over. If I were to make it again, I would probably consider cutting the fabric down to the dimensions of a standard or queen pillowcase and then work from that rectangle. A yard of fabric turns out to be as big as or possibly bigger than a King pillowcase. Who knew?

Playing with her new helicopters

Shed with dormer window - almost done!

Tonight they will finish the last two little trim work things for the outside. I am quite pleased with the two of them, they built the entire shed from scratch and some pictures of what we all liked. The next step is for the boy and I to figure out the layout of the inside and get the shelves, loft and work bench built. I am really looking forward to having a workshop space for us to work on projects for the house.

I will say though that seeing the shed go up made me stop to think about the amount of stuff we’ve accumulated (especially me) since we moved into this house three years ago. I decided it was past time for me to do some de-cluttering. So for starters I have a very lazy gal destash going on over at Ravelry. I put prices on several yarns that I doubt I will get around to knitting in the next year or two so that they may find homes where someone has a more immediate need or use for them.

Yarns for Destash over on Raverly

In other news, I am working on some languishing WIPs in a couple different mediums. I finished binding off Manu on Saturday then wove in the ends and blocked it on Sunday (it’s still drying). I finished spinning and plying up Garland yesterday – the last fiber I was working on for Tour de Fleece in July. I washed and whacked it this morning so it’s drying right now. I am also trying to knock out my WIP bin in the sewing room which includes a dress for my niece’s upcoming birthday and a duvet cover for our bed that I have had all the materials for, for umm at least two years…my how the time flies!

Hope being a bit camera shy

Oh, I guess to back up the boy and I started fostering rescue dogs April last year with a lovely dog, Lucy, who was fortuitously adopted 3 days before our wedding (now that was an emotion packed week!). We took a several month hiatus and I became more involved with the rescue group again this March. We took on a temporary foster, Bandit, while his foster family was on vacation. I volunteered to help out the intake coordinator with placing dogs and we got Lizzie a golden retriever/boxer mix who is hanging out with us this week while her adoptive family is on vacation (totally their idea and choice – not a requirement of our organization! )

So Hope. Hope was rescued from a high kill shelter in Ohio (Shelby county). Our organization pulls all breeds from high kill shelters around the state, mostly ones within a reasonable distance of central Ohio. Hope was tossed out of a vehicle while pregnant with pups. She ended up at Shelby county and was saved from euthanization by a family who took her in so she could have her pups. My organization – ADOPT Pet Rescue – took Hope and two of her pups – Luke and Bosco – in this weekend. When we got her on Saturday she was very afraid of cars (with good reason!) and had no clue what to do with stairs. We’ve helped her figure out stairs (much to my chagrin!) and are slowly working on getting her more comfortable with cars. Right now though we have our hands full having two good sized dogs in the home. We usually only have one at a time!

Hope has been approved to enter a service/therapy dog training program where she will be a companion for someone with special needs. We have to finish up some paperwork before she can go live with her trainer but we’re very excited for her!

One of my more exciting accomplishments for the tour was my Buckland. I was able to spin up an entire 4 oz onto one bobbin. Normally I have extra that I have to put onto a second bobbin. I then managed to pull off a pretty successful n-ply that left the boy saying that it looked like yarn I could get in a shop. I’d say that’s a compliment on my more consistent spinning. Hopefully I can use these skills to tackle my fiber stash closet.

Tour de Fleece 2011 total spinning

1. Mystery brown wool – 4 oz spun, 7.5 oz plied, 292 yds total, 623 ypp
2. HY Minerals in Shetland – 4 oz spun as singles, 306 yds total, 1224 ypp
3. HY Cauldron in Polwarth – 4 oz spun and 2 ply, 212 yds total, 848 ypp
4. HY Grim in Superwash Merino 60%, Bamboo 30%, Nylon 10% – 4 oz spun, 2-ply, 178 yards total, 712 ypp
5. HY Night Sky in Superwash BFL – 4 oz spun, n-ply, 228 yards, 912 ypp
6. HY Timber in Romney – 4 oz spun, n-ply, 118 yards total, 472 ypp
7. HY Buckland in Finn – 4 oz spun, n-ply, 308 yards total, 1232 ypp
8. HY Prism (polwarth) and Hither (corriedale) – 8 oz spun, n-ply, 140 yards total, 280 ypp (3 skeins – blue/yellow, dark purple, and red purples)
9. HY Garland in Targhee – 3 oz spun

The top row is made up of the baby skeins of the other skeins.

All in all I spun up 42.5 oz (or 2.65lbs) and plied up 1782 yds (or just over 1 mile). Pretty impressive considering I haven’t really touched my fiber and wheel much lately. Just goes to show how much you can get done if you do a little every day (or you know beg your husband to do the household chores so you can spin all evening every day).

I really like these group challenges, they allow me to just dive in and tackle something that’s been sitting around. Now I am trying to apply this concept to my sewing. Hopefully I will have some FOs to show soon!

Two weekends ago we put together all the goodie bags that have taken over my house. You can see a sneak peek here:

Goodie Bags packed up and ready to go for Sticks N Stitches 2011

I am really looking forward to this year’s event. See you there!

Honeycomb Fingerless Mitts

Last year during the Winter Olympics I worked on creating a pair of fingerless mitts out of some wonderful cashmere test yarn I had in my possession. It was my “Designer Dash” challenge and I medaled in the event. I found the stitch pattern while thumbing through a pattern book at my mother-in-law’s house in the fall of ’09. I tried making a scarf with the stitch pattern but it just wasn’t working out well, so I saved the stitch pattern for a better project. When the test yarn arrived I knew it would make an awesome pair of mitts to keep my hands warm while running between the car and the house but most importantly while at work. I spend all day in front of the computer and the lack of activity causes my fingers to freeze!

I had two wonderful test knitters working on this pattern, RunsWithHonden and sparkli. They both helped highlight points where I could explain things better and helped me make the pattern the best it could be. My friend Martha and I went to a nearby town over the holidays to take some pattern photos. I think they turned out great and I am glad she was able to capture them! I was also fortunate enough to come across some very nice design & layout software during the holidays so I taught myself to use it and created what I think is a pretty nice pattern. bunnysquirrel provided me with great help with some technical editing, proofing the new section of the website and giving the pattern a thorough review. I hope you find the pattern to your liking. I wear my mitts non-stop around here, especially while typing at work!

Photo: Copyright Martha Tremblay-Cohen